Germany: Town authorizes call to prayer

Germany: Town authorizes call to prayer

A town in Germany authorized the call of the muezzin by loudspeaker.

The German town of Rendsburg authorized the call to prayer of the muezzin by loudspeaker from the minaret of the mosque, despite protests from some people, the social-democrat mayor, Andreas Breitner, said Tuesday.

There are no legal ground for a possible ban, said the mayor, who announced the call to prayer outside the mosque.

The project advocated by the Islamic Center, which runs the mosque, caused strong protests from some people, who came out against the noise pollution caused by calling five times a day to invite the faithful Muslims to prayer. A petition by the group "No public call to prayer" collected 800 signatures.

But, according to the mayor, a study of possible noise pollution showed that this call wouldn't exceed 40 decibels, which is the sound level of a radio or birds, he says.

"Skin color, origin, gender or different religions do not play any role [in such decisions]," said the mayor, who added that it's good as it is.

The mosque of this town of more than 28,000 residents, 100km from Hamburg, is the biggest in the Schleswig-Holstein region, with two minarets 26m high. It was inaugurated in the fall of 2009.

Source: La Croix (French), h/t Observatoire de l' islamisation